Like The Rest of This Truncated Vacation Week, Jobs Report Turns Out Just So-So

A: Those of us who receive paychecks on the first of each month have an inflated sense of their own disposable income—an overconfidence that will result in one very fun weekend (this one) and one not-so-fun weekend (the last weekend of the month).

B: Jobs report!

C: All of the above.

Answer: C.

More details about answer B: 80,000 jobs were added last month, but that is by no means a particularly exciting number, as the economy requires 130,000 jobs a month “just enough to keep up with the growth in the working-age population.” The New York Times reports: “Since the recovery officially began in June 2009, there have been several spates of promising job growth, which raised hopes of a strengthening recovery that were ultimately dashed. Each time economists attributed the hiring slowdown to one-time negative shocks, including last year’s Japanese tsunami and Arab Spring. A healthier economy might have been able to easily withstand such shocks, but not one weakened by a debt overhang and sea of underwater homes.”

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate stayed steady at 8.2 percent. In certain situations—parceling out one's paycheck over an interminable four weeks, say—steadiness is desirable, even impressive. The unemployment rate is not really such a situation.